Auto da Fe
by Beth Winter
Summary: A snapshot of Duo's childhood on L2. The reason for the R rating is one a bit macabre scene


Category: Vignette   
Pairing: None   
Spoilers: Duo's Episode Zero   
Rating: R for drastic stuff   
Disclaimer: Duo, L2, OZ and all assorted stuff not mine. Lara, Jake and the colonel mine   
  
  
  
AUTO DA FÉ   
by Beth renfri@astercity.net   
  
  
  
//Auto da fé: literally 'act of faith;   
the carrying out of an Inquisition sentence,   
especially through burning the offending subject//   
  
  
"The plague is already dying out, thanks to the prompt action of the authorities - including the activities you people seem to find objectionable."   
  
The OZ colonel's voice was calm but conveying utter disgust for "you people" - the few reporters who have managed to get into the plague-stricken L2 colony. He led the way, letting Lara and her camera man trail behind him, paying no heed to the occasional stops for a quick out-take, but not slowing his pace either. Lara shuddered as the first hint of the stench reached her nostrils.   
  
"Jake, do you have the masks?" she asked the camera man quietly.   
  
"Here y'go, ma'am." He handed two small high-tech gas masks to her. She put one on quickly and tucked the other into her bag as backup.   
  
"Was this truly necessary?" she demanded, catching up to the colonel again.   
  
"Yes. If we chose a different way of disposal, the disease would have spread."   
  
"And what do you say to the accusations from Earth that in some cases you have aided in the death of the victims before 'disposing' of them?"   
  
The man whirled around, fixing her with a sharp stare of steel-gray eyes. "I say it's bullshit. We're soldiers, not murderers!"   
  
"But you can't deny that the antidote was not distributed to all."   
  
"We had a limited supply. Prioritization was necessary."   
  
Prioritization, my ass, Lara thought. She had seen the statistics and knew exactly in which group the fatalities count had been highest: street kids, orphans that no-one gave a toss about. Except a few nosy reporters with a tendency to stick their fingers into closing doors.   
  
They rounded another corner of the maze that was the L2 OZ base and suddenly the stench was overwhelming. She thumbed her gas mask into full-filtration mode before lifting her eyes, and noticed that even the colonel had put one on.   
  
Then the tableau before her caught her eyes. The bodies were piled up almost three meters high over an area close to 500 square feet. They had been stripped and the gauntness and starvation of the children who made up the bulk of the pile was apparent even in the brief glimpses the fire offered. The flames consumed them, embracing the thin limbs with their fiery fingers, caressing young flesh with a golden light. They crackled and carried the stench of burning flesh, detectable even though the ventilators to the sides of the bonfire were operating at full power. Glancing at the top of the pile, Lara saw the stretched-up hand of a small boy wither and blacken in the fire, skin and then meat pulling away to reveal brittle bone.   
  
Behind her, she heard the camera starting up.   
  
The hand was only a skeleton now, a black outline against the gold-red flames. Then as the fire burned through the last of the tendons, the digits fell apart, small fragments of blackened bone rolling away to rest between other too-young bodies, eding up tangled in burning hair.   
  
Then a small shadow came between them and the blaze. The boy couldn't have been more than seven, and his tattered clothes pinned him as a street kid, kin to the ones now perishing in the fiery inferno. His long hair fluttered over his face. He came closer to the flames, not caring if the heat burned his skin.   
  
"I'm here, Solo!" he shouted over the roar of the fire. "I won't forget!"   
  
He threw something - a ring, Lara realized - into the blaze. It glinted, only once, as it rose and fell between the flames.   
  
He turned to the camera crew and fixed them with a hateful look of violet eyes. There was death in this gaze, not a promise but a certainty.   
  
"Are you getting this?" Lara whispered.   
  
"Yes."   
  
* * *   
  
Back on Earth, a small blonde girl cried as she watched the news that evening.   
  
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{FINIS}   
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End file.
